10 Cover Versions That Are Absolute Masterpieces

When Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor was asked if Cash could record his song Hurt he was initially flattered but hesitant. He was worried that the idea of the country music legend covering this track sounded too much like a gimmick but he agreed to it anyway.

Initially skeptical of recording the song himself, it was producer Rick Rubin who convinced Cash to record the track. Rubin saw the song as the perfect fit for the veteran musician.

With his health seriously deteriorating due to autonomic neuropathy brought on by diabetes, Rubin noted that Cash sounded broken during sessions. Undoubtedly it was his fragile physical state that helped him interpret the song in a new way. Were Reznor had written the song from the viewpoint of a young adult on a downward spiral to self-destruction, Cash sung the lyrics with the knowledge of someone who knew they were at the end of their life.

Accompanied by a heart breaking video the song was a fitting last goodbye from Cash, a man who had suffered his fair share of hard times during his life. He would die only a few months after its release.